[EDITORIAL] Kwara CoS: Filling the Logun vacuum
The rank of Chief of Staff, in the real sense is a pseudonym subtly employed not to plunge the status of Deputy Governor or Vice President into the stream of subjugation. The immense of political clout wielded by Mallam Abba Kyari, the Late Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari could possibly serve as a barometer for the weight and influence of the office of Chief of Staff. Abdulllahi Adangba Mohammed; Mike Oghiadomhe; Gbolade Osinowo and Jones Arogbofa are Abba Kyari’s predecessors score of Nigerians who are not within the ring of the Nigerian polity could scarcely identify.
In fact, Mallam Abba Kyari during his red-dome cap and white brocade wearing days, made the once unnoticed seat a cynosure in the country by arrantly exhibiting that responsibilities of CoS are not limited to wearing ‘Baban riga and a matching ‘hula’ but also extend to scrutinizing key presidential staff and supervising them, structuring the staff system, controlling the influx of people to Aso Villa, managing the flow of information, protecting the interests of the president, negotiating with the National Assembly and other branches of government to implement the president’s agenda;
and advising the president on various issues, briefing the president on vital national interest information – ‘taking serial national bullets’ for the president.
This is no praise-singing, Abba Kyari was a masquerade with many regalias, the born intellectualist leveraged his legal, banking, journalistic and political know-hows to redefine and bring the exalted office of CoS to carve a favourable political pride and reverence for himself – he was a lawyer, an accomplished banker, a successful journalist and a commissioner in the third republic.
Abba Kyari’s rare multifaceted erudition and cognition, for both national and subnational governments, should be a gold-standard for selection of CoS.
It was believed in the public that President Muhammadu Buhari’s alleged intellectual frailty opened the door for Kyari’s freehand to tighten every perceived loose nuts and bolts in the Buhari-led administration. But in fairness, Kyari’s cross-fertilized knowledge and experience across different spectra of learnedness are part of tools that made him steal the show in the present regime just the James Vardy won the EPL golden boot in the just-concluded season.
Just within four years (or thereabouts) of clinching the throne of Chief of Staff at the instance of President Muhammadu Buhari, Kyari’s personal rank and fame soared high like an eagle in the seventh sky – his political wings and tentacles traversed the length and breadth of the country – even beyond. Mallam Kyari had a melodramatic stint, his name took over every rooftop whenever any audacious pronouncement or North-centric agenda was churned by the presidency.
Drifting to Kwara, it was unfortunate that the State Government on the July 7, 2020 lost its Chief of Staff, Alhaji (Engr) Aminu Logun Adisa to the wanton pandemic of corovirus.
The intellectual diplomat was, before his appointment an elder statesman who had contributed in significant manner, to the growth and development of Ilorin and Kwara State by extension. But the underlining reality was that only a few individuals within the top social brass were familiar with his rich personality.
Taking a look at his professional credential, it would not be hard to discern that the late National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) graduate was suitable for the stool of Kwara Chief of Staff – he had top-notch education, both within the country and in the United Kingdom. He had carved a niche for himself in the corporate world as he, in his professional years rose to the position of Chairman and Managing Director of Smallette Nigeria Limited – he also held several other positions.
No further clarification is needed from any heavenly Jupiter to conceive than both Kyari and Logun had done extremely enviable CVs which undoubtedly qualified them for the role most people touted to be the ‘de facto head’.
It is undeniable that the late Logun, actually did well as Kwara CoS, he filled some very crucial vacuums in the AbdukRazaq’s led administration – who knows, maybe he even paid the ultimate price for strict nationalism like his senior CoS, Abba Kyari did when he was in Germany on national assignment.
Following the vacuum created by the quietus of Logun, political scheming and intrigues – occassioned by the audacious ambitions of some forces within the administration – have taken over the air like sandstorm, but the enigmatic question is, who is AbdulRazaq’s next Chief of Staff?
Adieu to the duo.
